


Meet You In The Maze

by spencer_slaystings



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, F/F, Fluff, Internalized Homophobia, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-07 16:13:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6812797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spencer_slaystings/pseuds/spencer_slaystings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lexa  doesn’t like girls. Whatever she feels for Clarke, it’s not attraction, or lust, or anything of the sort. It’s only intrigue, it has to be. </p><p>Or, the one where Lexa is the daughter of a preacher and Clarke is the girl who changes everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”_

**Jeremiah 29:11**

* * *

 

 “Anya, _please_. Just turn on the air conditioning for a few minutes. I think I'm about to have a heat stroke,” Lexa begs, fanning herself with some papers she'd found shoved the car’s glove compartment. She’s seriously starting to regret letting her dad take her car to the mechanic last night. Driving with faulty brakes can’t be any worse than melting in Anya’s car.

“Are you gonna pay for the amount of gas turning on the A/C will waste?” Anya retorts, sucking her teeth.

Lexa rolls her eyes. She gets why Anya has to be so money conscious, but it can get excessive at times.

“Okay, can I at least open a window?”

Anya shakes her head. “Opening the window wastes gas too.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, I think it increases drag or something—wait, aren’t you taking AP physics? Shouldn’t you know this?”

 “Yea, but I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t,” Lexa admits, smiling sheepishly.

“Better luck next time.”

Lexa’s eyes drifts down to Anya’s lips as they curl into a cocky smirk. She’s always thought Anya had the prettiest lips. They look a little different today though; shinier than usual. Maybe she—

“Do have something on my face or…?” Anya’s voice cuts through her train of thought, and Lexa hastily shifts her eyes elsewhere. She feels like a child who’s just been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

“What? No, I was just—are you wearing new lip gloss?”

“Yea! My aunt bought me this huge pack of scented gloss over the weekend. Do you want to smell it?”

“I’m good. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to distract you from the road.”

Lexa smacks into the passenger door as Anya takes a sharp turn into a random driveway and puts the car into park.

“Well, I’m not driving anymore. Come on, smell my lips.”

“Anya…” Lexa groans, rubbing her probably bruised arm.

“Don’t worry, I promise it smells really good.”

Lexa can never say no to Anya. She relents, leaning across the center console until their faces are a few centimeters apart and her nose is nearly brushing against Anya’s bottom lip. Her mouth goes dry, but she dismisses it as a by-product of being in a hot car.

“I can’t believe you actually noticed,” Anya murmurs, breath washing over Lexa’s cheek.

Lexa swallows hard, trying to ignore the way her heart beats faster and the trail of goosebumps that sprout on her cheek. She takes a quick sniff before pulling back and returning to her seat. “Yea, I guess it smells pretty good.”

“See? I told you.”

Lexa has no idea what it smells like.

———————————————

Five minutes later and they’re arriving at the school’s parking lot. Lexa’s never been so grateful to be at school. Anya doesn’t even finish parking before Lexa is jumps out of the passenger seat.

“Remind me to never ask you for a ride again,” she pants, opening up the backseat of Anya’s car to retrieve her knapsack.

“Fine with me,” Anya flips her hair over her shoulder, “I don’t have to deal with you hogging the AUX cable to play gospel music anymore.”

They part ways once they enter the school, Anya leaving to find Octavia and Lexa making her way towards the bathroom to freshen up. She’s about fifteen feet away from the bathroom when a familiar presence bombards her from the back and presses a wet kiss to her cheek.

“Hm, I didn’t know you signed up for a triathlon this morning,” Roan teases, referring to her current sweaty state.

There are only a few people in the world that Lexa feels truly comfortable around, and Roan was one of them. They’ve been friends for most of their lives; watched each other grow up and shared almost every milestone together. She trusts him with everything—including her heart.

Lexa fights back a smile, turning around so she can sucker punch his arm. “Shut up, you’re not funny. Though I really _should_ get a gold medal for surviving ten minutes in Anya’s car.”

“Why were you in her car?”

“Mine got taken to the mechanic last night so Anya gave me a ride to school. Did you know she never turns on the A/C or open her windows? She claims it ‘saves gas’.”

“I think she’s mentioned it before. Anyway, why didn’t you just ask me? I could’ve given you a ride.”

“Anya lives closer to me. Plus, your car kind of smells like body odor,” she wrinkles her nose, before adding, “No offence.”

Roan pushes out his lower lip in an exaggerated pout. “That hurts, Lex. At least I turn on the A/C.”

“Fair point.”

They talk for a little while longer before the warning bell rings, alerting them that they only have five minutes to get to class.

“I’ll see you at lunch?” he asks, placing an index finger under her chin and tilting her head up towards him.

“Mhm,” Lexa hums. The distance between them closes, and as always, Lexa waits to feel a spark, butterflies, _anything_ as their lips press together. Instead the only thing she feels his stubble scratching uncomfortably against her skin as their lips move awkwardly against each other.

She squeezes her eyes shut and tries to remind herself that she loves him. Or at least, that she’s supposed to.

———————————————

Lexa finally heads into the bathroom with four minutes left before first period. Fortunately for her, she has the period off, so she can take her sweet time freshening up. She strolls over to the sink farthest from the door and fishes out a makeup bag from her knapsack, placing it on the counter.

Lexa would hardly classify herself as self-obsessed, yet when she looks up to see her reflection in the mirror, she can’t help but start to over-analyze every little detail about herself—the clogged pores on her chin, the stray hairs on her left eyebrow. She wants to believe God made her in His image, that all her flaws are perfections in His eyes, but it’s been getting harder as the years go by.

She remembers being seven. While most girls her age would spend recess having tea parties and playing dress-up, she was trying to perfect her pirouettes. They’d look over every once in a while, staring at her like she was some sort of alien. She didn’t care though; she never did back then. People’s opinions were just background noise to her, small obstacles on the path towards being her dream of being a professional dancer. But everything changed once her dad became the minister of Belmont Bay’s largest (and only) congregation.

Suddenly, the whole town knew her name, and as the preacher’s daughter, people started expecting things from her. They wanted her to be pretty, so she exchanged her toys in for makeup. They wanted her to be on the choir, so weekends were spent driving 45 minutes out of town for her singing lessons. They wanted her to be perfect—a role-model for people her age—so she built a fence around herself, and only let people see the best sides of her.

The sound of a toilet flushing startles Lexa, resulting in her hand jerking forward and knocking her makeup bag off the counter. Guess she was wrong about being the only one here.

The bag’s contents spill out onto the floor, tubes and brushes rolling in every direction. She feels her face heat up as she gets on her knees and begins scrambling to pick up everything. Moments later, she hears a raspy, unfamiliar voice speak to her.

“I think this is yours.” 

She’s in such a rush to get all her things back she doesn’t bother to look up to see whom the voice belongs to, she just takes the silver lash curler out of their hand and shoves it back into her make-up bag. “Thanks.”

Whoever it is must be nice, because they stay and help Lexa collect the rest of her things. She thanks the person again once they’re all done, placing one last tube in her bag before finally looking up.

 _Wow_.

She’s _really_ pretty. Like, it’s almost unfair how pretty she is. She looks like she belongs on the cover of a magazine rather than in some town where there are more cows than actual people. Her eyes are especially nice; a bright shade of blue that Lexa doesn’t quite know the name of (art has never really been her thing). She’s also kind of intimidating, with her all-black attire and red lips. It makes Lexa a little afraid to talk to her, if she’s being honest.

The girl offers a hand, and Lexa manages to stop her staring long enough to take it and allow herself to be helped up.

“Thank you. Again.”

“I think this is the third time you’ve thanked me in the span of forty seconds,” the girl notes, running a hand through her blonde locks.

Lexa feels her face heat up again. She chews on the inside of her cheek, trying to fight off her blush before it can make an appearance. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

A ghost of a smile appears on the girl’s lips as she leans against a nearby wall. “Don’t worry, your politeness is endearing.”

There’s no way Lexa can hide her blush this time, so she tries to change the subject in hopes that Clarke won’t notice.  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before.”

“It is my first day here.”

Lexa’s eyes widen slightly. It’s been awhile since they’ve had a new kid. Everyone is always leaving Belmont Bay, not coming in.

“Wow, that’s great. How are you enjoying the school so far?”

“It’s kind of hard to form an opinion about a place when you’ve only been there ten minutes, wouldn’t you say?” Her voice is light when she replies, so Lexa is pretty sure she’s not making fun of her, though Lexa still feels stupid for asking such a bone-headed question.

“Right, school hasn’t even started yet. Sorry, that was a dumb question.”

She tilts her head at Lexa, eyes narrowing slightly. “You apologize too much.”

“I do? Sorry, I—“Lexa stops herself mid-sentence and they exchange curious glances at each other before bursting into a short fit of laughter.

An awkward silence settles between them as the laughter dies down, and Lexa shifts her eyes to the floor. For the first time in a long while, she’s at a loss of words. She’s usually so good with carrying conversations (it comes with the territory of being a preacher’s daughter, since everyone and their mother seems to want to talk to her whenever they see her on the street), but her nerves are getting the best of her, and as a result, her mind is drawing a blank. It doesn’t help that she can still feel the other girl’s gaze trained on her, like she’s expecting Lexa to say something magnificently clever.

“Well”—Lexa clears her throat—“I hope you have good first day.”

The girl nods, pushing off the bathroom wall. “You too.”

“It’s not my first day though,” Lexa blurts out before she can stop herself.

She rolls her eyes playfully. “You know what I meant.” She’s about to make her way towards the exit when Lexa pipes up again.

“Wait,” her voice lowers as she continues. “You, um, forgot to wash your hands,” Maybe it’s a silly that she’s reminding her, but Lexa’s kind of a germaphobe and she knows first-hand how nasty the school bathrooms are. She’s just watching out for her—it would suck to catch something on your first day at a new school.

“I actually used this in the stall,” the girl reaches into the smallest pocket on her messenger bag and produces a small tube of Dora The Explorer themed hand-sanitizer. Lexa stifles a laugh at the sight.

“I appreciate the concern though.” The corners of the girl’s mouth turn up in a tiny smile.

Lexa feels the knot in her stomach ease slightly. “Just making sure. The janitor doesn’t clean the bathroom very often so you never know what sort of diseases could be festering in here.” She realizes she’s getting too comfortable around this girl, because she never insults others—at least, not in front of people she’s not close to. She needs to reel herself if.

The slip up does seem worth it when a small laugh escapes the girl. “I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe I’ll see you around?”

Lexa beams, “Yea, maybe.”

She really does hope she’ll see her around. For reasons yet to be determined, she has a good feeling about her.

The girl points a finger in the direction of one the stalls. “By the way, I’m pretty sure I saw your mascara roll into there.”

A wave of embarrassment hits Lexa as she rushes into the stall to pick it up, and by the time she steps out, the exit door is swinging shut. 

———————————————

Lexa spends the next few periods consumed with thoughts of her. She keeps replaying their conversation in her head, trying to figure out what it was about the girl that made her so nervous. She can sing in front of hundreds of people at her church every week without batting an eyelash, how could one girl leave her struggling to form sentences?

Lunch rolls around and she’s grateful for the distraction. She finds her friends at their usual table near the back of the cafeteria, Octavia snuggling into Lincoln’s chest as he strokes her arm. Lexa has always found it cute how they’re affectionate they still are with each other despite having been together for over three years. Anya, on the other hand, looks completely unimpressed with the exchange as she sits on the opposite side of the table.

“Were Tristan and I this disgustingly affectionate when we were together?” Anya asks as Lexa settles into the seat beside her.

She smirks. “Even more so.”

Anya sends a playful smack her way, “Your opinion doesn’t count anyway. You never liked Tristan.”

That wasn’t necessarily true. She found Tristan alright until he and Anya started dating last year. For some reason, he became increasingly annoying, especially when he was hanging all over Anya.

Lexa turns to Lincoln, “Where’s Roan?”

“He stayed behind to help Mr. Jaha with something. He’ll probably be out soon.”

Lexa nods, giving Lincoln a gracious smile.

“Did you guys hear about the new girl?” Octavia hums, removing her head from Lincoln’s chest and sitting up straight. Lexa keeps her eyes down and focuses on pulling out her lunch from her knapsack.

“It’s all anyone is talking about. Apparently she’s really hot,” Lincoln says.

Octavia gestures over to Anya. “She’s in our history class. And you’re right, she’s super pretty.”

Up until this point, Lexa had been trying her best to feign disinterest, but she can’t stop herself from being a little curious as to what Octavia knows. “Did you meet her? What’s she like?”

Octavia shrugs. “I only talked to her for a second. She seems nice, if a little quiet.”

Lexa is about to ask what her name is when Anya starts talking again. 

“You know the new girl is actually Raven’s cousin?”

Lexa almost gets whiplash from how quickly her head turns. “Really? They don’t look alike.”

There’s not much Lexa knows about Raven, besides the fact that she’s the only female member of the ‘Future Engineers’ club at their school. She’s also Anya’s closest friend besides Lexa. In fact, they’re so close that Lexa used to refer to them as sisters, until they started getting weirdly offended at the term and made her stop.

Sure, she’ll talk to Raven if she ever spots her in the hall, but they’re more friends by association than actual friends.

“Mhm, Raven told me on the phone yesterday. They might be second cousins twice removed or something, I can’t remember. Apparently Clarke’s staying with her family for the semester.”

Lexa makes a mental note of her name. “Why?”

“I don’t know, she didn’t tell me. Honestly, she didn’t tell me much about her. It was really late when we were talking so we were both half-asleep. I do remember her mentioning that she was trouble though.”

Lexa almost scoffs at that. As if someone who carried around Dora hand-sanitizer could be ‘trouble’.

Just then, Lexa spots Raven and the girl— _Clarke_ —stepping into the end of the lunch line. The rest of the cafeteria spots them as well, and soon most of the room is staring at the pair. She can’t imagine what it’s like to be in a foreign place and have everyone looking at you, but Clarke seems unfazed by it all.

“She is pretty,” Lincoln comments, before quickly adding, “not as pretty as you though.” He gives Octavia a reassuring peck on the cheek.

“Nice save,” Anya remarks, popping a potato wedge into her mouth.

They delve into a conversation about cafeteria food or something; Lexa’s not sure since she’s too busy watching Finn approach Raven’s cousin in the line. Of course Finn would be the first guy to try and hit on the new girl, in front of his ex-girlfriend of all people.

They talk for a few moments, Raven and Clarke both sporting irritated looks on their faces. It doesn’t take long for Clarke to turn around and return her attention back to Raven. Finn taps Clarke’s shoulder in an attempt to get it back, but it seems as though she’s firmly set on ignoring him. His shoulders slouch, and Finn’s friends erupt in laughter as he makes his way back to their table, looking defeated as ever.

She knew there was a reason she had a good feeling about this girl.

———————————————

Talk about Clarke continues on for the rest of the day. Lexa tunes out most of it; it doesn’t feel right to indulge in rumors about someone she barely knows.

Lexa tries to look for Clarke throughout the day, even going as far as to check a few (or all) of the school’s bathroom. Despite this, she still fails to catch sight of her again. By the end of the day, Lexa comes to the conclusion that Clarke is either a figment of her imagination or—more likely—not in any of Lexa’s classes, which isn’t too surprising with her course load is mostly AP classes.

“We don’t have any English homework, right?” Octavia asks, balancing a pink binder in one hand and a history textbook in the other.

Lexa shakes her head softly, and Octavia continues going through her binders and textbook.

Lexa is leaning against the locker beside Octavia’s, absentmindedly running her fingers along its ridges. “Thanks for giving me a ride home. Roan’s got practice after school and I don’t think I could survive another minute in Anya’s hell on wheels.”

“No problem. Just don’t fight me over the music. You know I don’t mess around when it comes to what plays in my car.” Octavia’s voice is light, but she gives Lexa a serious look.

She laughs, “Whatever you say, octagon.”

Octavia pulls a face and opens her mouth to say something, but the sudden presence of Mr. Kane, the school’s vice principal, makes her choke down her words.

“Hello girls,” he greets, nodding politely to the pair.

They greet him in unison.

“Lexa, do mind stepping into my office for a minute?”

“No problem,” she nods, turning to Octavia, “I’ll see you in the car?”

“Sure. Having a good evening, Mr. Kane.” She waves, before returning to collecting the rest of her books from her locker.

They start walking in the direction opposite of Octavia and towards his office. Part of Lexa is freaking out right now, since there’s a chance she could be in trouble. It’s a slim one, but still.

“You’re probably wondering why I’ve asked you to come into my office,” he says after a moment of silence.

“I’m just hoping it’s not for anything bad,” she jokes, trying to ease the awkward tension between them.

“No, of course not. I actually need to ask a favor of you. We’ve got a student who missed the first few weeks of school and is desperate need of someone to help them catch on a few courses.”

Lexa knits her eyebrows in confusion. It’s weird she didn’t hear about one of the students missing the first few weeks of school, considering how fast gossip usually travels in this town. It must have been someone not every popular.

He clasps his hands behinds his back as he continues, “You’re one of the school’s top students, so I was wondering if you could be that person. If you have the time, of course.”

“I’d be glad to help,” she responds, even though her schedule is already kind of packed. She’ll make time, because she knows God would want her to put others before herself. 

He smiles. “Fantastic. You can either receive volunteer hours or pay for your time. Your choice.”

She can already tell from the look on his face which option he wants her to pick.

“I’ll take the volunteer hours. You can never have too much of them.” She returns a slightly strained smile. A few extra dollars would be great, but it would be selfish of her take payment for helping someone.

They reach Mr. Kane’s office, and he pushes open the door to let her in.

She steps into the room, and sees person she’s going to be tutoring standing behind the vice principal’s desk. Lexa feels like an idiot for not putting two and two together and seeing this coming.

There she is, a tongue poking out between her red lips as she focuses on scribbling down something onto a clipboard. The creaking of the door being opened makes her look up and a pair of bright blue eyes land on Lexa.

“Lexa, meet Clarke. Clarke, meet your new tutor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally wrote the first chapter of this fic a while ago as a Lauren/Normani fanfiction. I lost interest in 5H/couldn't figure out where I wanted the storyline to go so I never ended up finishing it. Recently, I was re-watching some Clexa scenes and a rough idea of where I want the storyline to go came to me, so I decided to convert the first chapter into Clexa and continue the rest of the story as a Clexa fanfiction.


	2. Chapter 2

_As iron sharpens iron, one person sharpens another._

**Proverbs 27:17**

* * *

 

It takes Clarke five minutes to finish filling out the rest of her forms, another minute for the vice principal to look over them, making it a total of six minutes that Lexa spends typing gibberish on her phone in an attempt to look busy.

“You’re all set, Miss Griffin,” Mr. Kane states, clapping his hands together enthusiastically. “You ladies can go now. Have a safe trip home.”

The pair say their goodbyes to Mr. Kane before departing into the hallway.

“I was hoping I’d see you again,” Clarke voices, the door of the office swinging shut behind them.

Lexa pulls her bottom lip between her teeth to stop herself from smiling. So the curiosity was a two-way street. That (almost) soothes Lexa’s guilt about nearly stalking the girl.

“Really? Why?” Lexa inquires.

“You’re one of the few people that’s treated me halfway normal today.”

“Oh, I’m guessing your cousin didn’t warn you about what happens to new kids.”

Clarke arches an eyebrow. “My cousin?”

“Uh, Raven?”

A beat passes. Clarke’s stare is blank, until suddenly, her eyes go wide. 

“Right! My cousin, Raven. Sorry, I, uh, didn’t get a lot of, um, sleep last night, so my brain is a bit…“ Clarke trails off, gesturing helplessly as a blush spreads onto her cheeks.

Lexa raises her hand to stop Clarke’s one-woman game of charades. “It’s fine, you don’t have to explain. Lack of sleep can do weird things to people.”

“Hah, yea,” Clarke smiles, though it’s clearly forced, “Anyway, what should Raven have warned me about?”

“New kids are a rarity at our school, since Belmont Bay is such a small town. As a result, people here can get really weird around them,” Lexa explains.

They make casual conversation about class until they reach Clarke’s locker. Lexa decides that now would be a good time to send a quick text to Octavia, since Clarke was busy with trying to open her locker.

_[2:51 PM] Lexa Woods: Things are taking longer than expected, but I will be out soon. Sorry for the wait._

_[2:51 PM] Octavia Blake: take ur time im about to beat my high score in 2048 >:)_

Lexa smiles at Octavia’s reply before stashing her phone back in her pocket. Her attention returns to Clarke, who is currently trying to open her locker by what seems like—if her grunting is any indication—sheer force.

“So…” Lexa begins, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. She just needed to get Clarke’s contact information and then she’d be on her way.

“You’re probably wondering why I’m staying with the Reyes family, right?” Clarke finishes. While it’s not the question Lexa was planning to ask, it was something that had been on the back of her mind since lunch.

“Well, actually I—“

“It’s probably best I tell you now before you hear some dumb rumor,” Clarke interrupts, which is followed by a grunt as she continues to fiercely pull on her locker’s padlock. “To put it simply, I got tired of living in a big city and I wanted a change of pace,” she divulges, yanking forcefully on her padlock one last time before stepping back and pinching the bridge of her nose.

Lexa steps forward, afraid Clarke might break her thumb if she continues on like this. “Let me help. What’s your combination?”

Clarke fishes a crumpled piece of paper out of her bag and hands it to Lexa. Lexa quickly scans over the numbers before having a crack at opening the lock.

“Sorry, this is my first time dealing with a locker,” Clarke mumbles.

“Your old school didn’t have lockers?”

“I went to a boarding school in New York. Our rooms were our lockers.”

“Well, it’s easy once you get used to it.” Lexa turns the dial to the final number and pulls open the lock. When Lexa turns around, she finds the blonde beaming at her. Clarke’s smile, like everything else about her, is ridiculously pretty.

“Thanks, you’re a lifesaver.” Clarke drops to her knees and starts emptying her overstuffed bag into her locker.

“No problem. If you want, I can show you how they work.”

“That would be great, just give me a second.”

After Clarke finishes dumping out the rest of her bag and gives her the go-ahead, Lexa begins a rigorous demonstration of how to open a combination lock. When she finishes, she steps back and to let Clarke try for herself.

Clarke fiddles with the padlock for a few moments before groaning and throwing her hands up in defeat. “I’m not good with this kind of stuff.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. Like you said, it’s your first time dealing with a locker lock. They’re confusing, so it’s understandable if you don’t get it your first try. Just watch me again, and then try to copy what I do.”

Lexa is in the middle of turning the dial to the first number when she feels something warm soft rest over fingers—Clarke’s _hand_. Lexa swallows hard, hoping the nervous flutter in her chest doesn’t show on her face.

“Maybe it would be more helpful for you to guide me through the motions?” Clarke suggests, swiping her thumb over the back of Lexa’s knuckles and leaning in a bit closer. It’s moments like this that make Lexa glad she has such a strict moisturizing regiment for herself.

Before Lexa has a chance to reply, Clarke pulls her hand away and an uneasy look washes over her face. At first, Lexa is disheartened, assuming that Clarke’s expression was towards her, but it doesn’t take long for her to realize that Clarke is not looking _at_ her. She’s looking _behind_ her. Lexa swivels around to find a very agitated Raven making her way towards them.

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” Raven snaps once she reaches them, glaring at Clarke. “Why do you even have a phone if you’re not going to answer it?”

“I turned off my phone during last period. I must have forgot to turn it back on when I went to the vice principal’s office. I’m sorry,” Clarke laments.

Raven’s stare remains hard for a few more moments, until she relents and sighs. “It’s fine. I was just worried something might’ve happened to you.”

“Aww, who knew you cared so much?” Clarke teases.

“Don’t flatter yourself, princess. I just didn’t want to deal with my dad yelling at me for letting you die,” Raven jests, an almost devilish smile on her face. She leans against a nearby locker, the sound of her leg brace bumping against the metal making Lexa flinch slightly. Raven lets out a soft chuckle when she notices this.

“Hey Lexa. You two know each other?” Raven asks.

“Sort of,” Lexa offers, pausing to look over at Clarke for silent permission to continue, “I actually just found out that I am Clarke’s new tutor.”

Raven nods in approval. “Good, Clarke needs all the help she can get.”

“Shut up, your face needs all the help it can get,” Clarke shoots back, grinning.

Lexa has a feeling that Clarke and Raven could probably go on forever taking snipes at each other, so she decides to cut in before Raven has a chance to reply.  

“I should get going,” Lexa says, “Octavia is supposed to give me a ride home and I don’t want to keep her waiting too long.”

“Wait, before you go.” Clarke wraps a hand around Lexa’s wrist, turning it over so that the underside her forearm is exposed to Clarke. Lexa furrows her brows, unsure of where this was going.

“Do you have a pen I could borrow?” Clarke asks.

Lexa nods, using her free hand to pull out a pen and give it to Clarke.

“Thanks,” Clarke says, popping the cap off and tipping forward to write on Lexa’s arm.

“What are you writing?”

“My number.”

“You couldn’t just program it into my phone?”

“I could, but then you wouldn’t get to see how great my hand-writing is.”

Lexa tilts her head to get a better view. “It is very nice.”

Despite Clarke’s face being partially covered by hair, Lexa can tell she’s got a smug smile plastered on her lips.

“All done,” Clarke says, dotting the i’s with hearts and placing a small winky face beside her number. She straightens her back but her fingers don’t leave Lexa’s arm. “Text me with a time and place for our first session.”

“Will do,” Lexa pauses to look down at her arm and double check the name that was written on it, “Clarke Griff.”

Clarke laughs. “It’s Clarke Griffin.” She moves her thumb out of the way to reveal the last two letters of her name. “See?”

“Well, it’s not my fault your hand was blocking my view,” Lexa shrugs, a smile on her face.

“Oh, you’re just jealous because you wish you had hands as beautiful as mine,” Clarke teases, sliding her hand down past the pulse point on Lexa’s wrist (which is currently beating erratically for reasons Lexa can’t pinpoint) and holding Lexa’s hand. “I’ll see you around?” She gives Lexa’s hand a soft squeeze before letting go.

“Mhm, I’ll see both of you later,” Lexa agrees, turning to Raven, whose gaze was currently trained on Clarke.

Raven’s eyes shift to Lexa and there’s a flash of an unrecognizable expression on her face before it gets masked by a polite smile. “Yea. Tell Octavia I said hi.”

———————————————

“I miss season one Jenny, she was so cute and innocent. Now she looks like a wet raccoon,” Anya comments, eliciting a loud laugh from Lexa. They’re currently sprawled out on Lexa’s bed, Lexa in between Anya’s legs and the back of her head resting gently on Anya’s stomach. Gossip Girl is playing on the television but it’s mostly just background noise to conversations about their week.

This was Lexa and Anya’s ‘lazy Sunday’, a tradition they had developed in elementary school to spend every Sunday afternoon together. Due to the craziness of senior year, the amount of time they actually spent together during their ‘lazy Sunday’ was at an all-time low. It bothered Lexa, how she and Anya seemed to be hanging out less and less, especially since half the time Anya left it was to go meet up with Raven to study. Not that she’d ever voice her frustrations out loud; Anya and Raven _did_ share more classes together, so it made sense for them to be study buddies. And it wasn’t entirely Anya’s fault—Lexa was trying to pad her resume for college by coordinating more events and picking up more volunteer shifts, all of which left her with little free time.

“I think she looks alright,” Lexa replies.

“Y’know, now that I think about it, Jenny kind of looks like Raven’s cousin.”

Lexa snorts. “Are you being serious?”

“Okay, maybe Clarke’s eyeliner isn’t as intense as hers, but there are very clear similarities in their facial features,” Anya takes the remote from Lexa and pauses at a still of Jenny’s face, ”see for yourself.”

Lexa squints, trying to make out these so called ‘similarities’. After brief deliberation, she decides that Anya must be losing her eyesight.

“I don’t see it. Besides the blonde hair, they look nothing alike.”

“Hmm, maybe it’s just me.” Lexa feels Anya shrug under her. “Speaking of Clarke, Raven tells me you’re her new tutor…”

She knows where Anya’s trying to go with this, and she’s not in the mood to deal with it right now. She just wants to watch mindless TV with her best friend. Lexa hits the play button on the remote and silently hopes that if she pretends to be distracted, Anya won’t say anything.

“Are you sure you want to add tutoring to your already long list of commitments?” Anya asks, concern clear in the inflection of her voice.

Lexa hadn’t given much thought to the time commitment tutoring Clarke would be. They’d probably have to meet at least a couple hours a week to get her caught up before mid-terms. Would it be impossible? No. Would it be inconvenient? A little. But she had already made a commitment and she wasn’t going to break it.

Lexa sets her jaw and hardens the line of her mouth, “I can’t back out now. It wouldn’t be fair to Clarke or Mr. Kane. They’re counting on me.”

“What about what’s fair to you?” Anya counters.

Lexa sighs. It seemed like they had this conversation every other week since sophomore year.

“I know you’re probably not going to listen to me, but please try not spread yourself too thin. I rarely see you as is,” Anya says.

Lexa resists the urge to call out how much time her study sessions with Raven take up, knowing that it would only make things worse. Instead, she nods in response, reaching over her shoulder to stroke Anya’s hand.

“Thank you for caring enough to worry about me, but you don’t have to. I’ll be fine; I always am.”

Anya murmurs her agreement before dropping a kiss onto the back of Lexa’s hand. Lexa smiles, ignoring the way her heart thuds just a little too loud.

———————————————

On Monday, Clarke and Lexa forego eating lunch in the cafeteria to meet up at the library for their first tutoring session. Despite Clarke’s protests, Lexa decides that they should try and tackle calculus first since it was probably the hardest subject. She goes through a few calculus concepts with Clarke before assigning some textbook questions for her to work on. While she waits for Clarke to finish, she gets a head start on her AP English homework. The two work diligently for a little over fifteen minutes, until Clarke breaks the silence.

“I’m bored. Can we take a break?” Clarke pouts.

Lexa peers over at Clarke’s notebook to see how she’s progressing. There’s only a few lines of writing, the rest of the page filled with nature doodles. “You haven’t even finished the first three questions.”

“A quick break would help focus my mind.”

Lexa checks her watch. “Lunch is over in less than half an hour. I’m not sure we can afford a break.”

“Okay, let’s make a deal. If we take a break now, I won’t ask for another one until we’re done.”

“…Alright. But only five minutes, and I get to time it on my phone.”

“Fine, but you have to play twenty one questions with me.”

Lexa eyes Clarke suspiciously. It’s not like Lexa comes off as very fascinating; she can’t imagine why Clarke—or anyone—would want to play this game with her, but she doesn’t have any good excuse to say no.

“Deal,” Lexa agrees.

Clarke leans forward so _eagerly_ that Lexa almost fears for her life. It doesn’t help that Clarke’s got a smile plastered on her face that’s so wide that it puts the Cheshire Cat to shame.

“I just want to know,” Clarke looks around the library before lowering her voice, “ _how_ do you get your braids so tight?”

Lexa can only laugh at Clarke’s outlandish behavior, but she plays along, leaning forward and whispering her reply. “Family secret.”

“Can I feel them?”

Lexa nods and tilts her head forward.

Clarke reaches across the table to take one of the bigger braids in her hand. She runs her fingers down the length and repeats the motion with another braid. “They’re so pretty.”

Lexa feels pride swell up in her chest at Clarke’s compliments. She was quite meticulous about how she braided her hair and she was happy someone else took notice. She lets Clarke continue to fiddle around with braids for a little longer before she realizes she forgot to do something.

“Wait, I still have to set the timer.”

“Fuck, I was hoping if I complimented you enough you’d never remember to do it,” Clarke smirks, withdrawing her hand from Lexa’s hair and falling back into her chair.

Lexa nearly tells Clarke that she can keep on playing with her braids, until she realizes how weird that sounds. Instead, she laughs awkwardly at Clarke’s joke and picks up her phone from the table.

“My turn to ask,” Lexa states, putting her phone down once she finishes setting the timer. They haven’t known each other very long, so Lexa figures it’s probably best to stick to surface level questions.

“What’s your favorite color?” Lexa asks.

Clarke cups her chin like she’s deep in thought. “It changes frequently, but right now I’d have to say Persian blue.”

“I didn’t even know such a color existed.”

“Yea, only art snobs know that color exists.”

“Are you saying you’re an art snob?”

“If I recall correctly, it’s _my_ turn to ask a question.”

Lexa chuckles, raising her hands defensively. “My bad. Go on.”

This time around, Clarke takes her sweet time coming up with a question for Lexa. She studies Lexa with steady curiosity, eyes grazing over her in a fashion that makes the usually collected Lexa shift nervously in her chair.

“What’s your guilty pleasure?” Clarke asks finally.

Lexa shakes her head, gaze downcast as she smiles at the table. “You’re gonna laugh.”

“I promise I won’t.”

Lexa pauses to take in Clarke’s expression, deciding to believe her based on the intensity of her eyes. “I read celebrity gossip magazines.”

Clarke clamps down on her bottom lip and exhales through her nose. “I didn’t peg you as the type. Please tell you don’t actually believe that crap.”

“I know it’s all fake.  And honestly, I detest the way they ruthlessly scrutinize people’s lives and the unrealistically high standards of beauty they convey.”

“Then why do you read them?”

“I don’t know, I guess they’re kind of addicting,” Lexa replies, forgetting the ‘one question at a time rule’. “I also think it comes down to science.”

“How so?”

“Some scientists believe that gossip, as we know it today, evolved from a time period where successful navigation of local political complexities had a direct impact on reproductive success. Our interest in the misbehavior of people, whether it be our peers or celebrities, is an evolutionary hangover from that time period.”

“Wow, that’s pretty cool. I’m surprised you know all this stuff though.”

Lexa’s quirks an eyebrow. “Why?”

“I guess I assumed everyone here would think that evolution was just some atheist bullshit.”

“And why did you assume that we’d think that?” Lexa’s chest clenches in anticipation of Clarke’s answer. She has a feeling it’s not going to be a good one.

Clarke rolls her eyes, mouth curved into a half-grin. “Come on, Lexa. Let’s not pretend the Deep South is some beacon of progressive thinking and intelligence. I mean, I ran into the a kid today who legitimately thought the earth was created in seven days and that it was only six thousand years old,” she explains, chuckling.

Sure, Belmont Bay wasn’t perfect, and there were undoubtedly a lot of… slow people, but it was her home. Everyone she ever loved was here. And who was Clarke to judge this town when she had barely been there a week?

“So what you’re saying is that you think everyone in the south is stupid?” Lexa clenches her jaw, disbelief evident in her voice.

“I never said that,” Clarke tilts her head and pouts, like it’s all some big joke, “Are you mad at me?”

“I’m not mad.” _Just disappointed,_ she mentally finishes, but she leaves that part out because it sounds too close to something a mother would say.

“Oh, so is that stick currently lodged in your ass just a permanent fixture?”

Lexa stiffens. She doesn’t mind being teased if it was in good fun. But this didn’t feel like a joke, especially since she barely knew Clarke. It just feels rude.

Clarke smile falters as Lexa begins packing up her things. “What are you doing?”

Lexa zips up her bag-pack and throws it over her shoulder. “I think I overestimated the amount of time I’d have free. Send my apologies to Mr. Kane, but you’ll have to find a new tutor,” Lexa says, voice even. She feels a pang of guilt, but she swallows it down and tries to convince herself that she was doing the right thing. She couldn’t tutor someone who had just insulted her and her entire town; even Christians had limits.

Lexa stands up from her chair and takes a stride towards the exit.

Clarke’s on her feet right after Lexa. “Lexa, wait. I was just joking. I didn’t mean—” Clarke surges forward to grab Lexa’s arm, but Lexa simply brushes past her.

“Good luck with the rest of your semester, Clarke.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am wondering if I should continue with the bible verses at the beginning of the chapter. I try to find ones that relate to the chapter (though I only search for like 5 minutes if I am being honest)


End file.
